Hi Steve! Where are you located? I can't figure out your time. or is it the server time that is weird?

Never payed much attention to that time clock but it looks like it is showing Greenwich time. Sometime i may have to look into that. I am on galactic time. Any how i presently work in the midwest U.S. and do a lot of travel on my job. I get home on the week end. How about you? Not too many space odyssey friends here in the midwest but they do have interests we share together. Many musicians though. A few meditation friends. A photographer friend and a farmers market friend. Oh a few people that come to see me play music. They have become friends. The internet has become a new way of finding people friends and aquaintances. Thats why this place started up... to find friends with common interests and aspirations... all over the world. Tell me more about your interests and whereabouts in this cosmic drama.

I am in Ohio, originally from Russia, been here for over half of my life, so this is home now. For years, nothing interests me, but reading, writing and talking about God and spiritual subjects. Actually, reading is off the list now. For some reason, i am practically unable to read. it's become boring. but this is new. before, i was swallowing the books, mainly spiritual. i have quite a library at home. These days, i open a book, read two lines, a paragraph in the best case and I am gone, away in the no land of "doing nothing" as I call it. So, this is pretty much my only interest and I sort of feel guilty about not wanting to do anything. But i do have to work and perform household duties as all of us. My son has grown up and lives separately, but my mother who is partially disabled has moved in with us (my husband and me) now and I am taking care of her. I have a cat and the fish. Even thought I am a Spirit, I serve the flesh. is not this sad? God has become a slave to His own creation, Steve.

sorry for the pessimistic mood. I am doing a particularly boring thing at work and it depresses me. generally, I am an optimist. at least, this is what I remember about myself

Thanks for sharing some of your life with us Irena. I would be interested to know some of your life experiences in Russia and to know how you have arrived at the views expressed in your last post on free will/determinism.

I felt similar feelings to what you described below. I just lay here for a while and could not even get up to meditate. Being alone sometimes gives us depth. When i see your post... i see it there. I started thinking about all the different people that have blessed my life as I was laying here. Sometimes we need time to just reflect. It's O.K.

There are many opportunities in our life. We just have to recognize them when they come. For instance; Amma will be in Detroit in a month or so. Now there is a person who can change your life! All for now Irena and thank-you for sharing!

I am in Ohio, originally from Russia, been here for over half of my life, so this is home now. For years, nothing interests me, but reading, writing and talking about God and spiritual subjects. Actually, reading is off the list now. For some reason, i am practically unable to read. it's become boring. but this is new. before, i was swallowing the books, mainly spiritual. i have quite a library at home. These days, i open a book, read two lines, a paragraph in the best case and I am gone, away in the no land of "doing nothing" as I call it. So, this is pretty much my only interest and I sort of feel guilty about not wanting to do anything. But i do have to work and perform household duties as all of us. My son has grown up and lives separately, but my mother who is partially disabled has moved in with us (my husband and me) now and I am taking care of her. I have a cat and the fish. Even thought I am a Spirit, I serve the flesh. is not this sad? God has become a slave to His own creation, Steve.

sorry for the pessimistic mood. I am doing a particularly boring thing at work and it depresses me. generally, I am an optimist. at least, this is what I remember about myself

Thanks for sharing some of your life with us Irena. I would be interested to know some of your life experiences in Russia and to know how you have arrived at the views expressed in your last post on free will/determinism.

I hope you can share some of yours too, Steve. About life experiences in Russia, I am not sure what interests you. Do you have particular questions that you would like me to answer? It was just a regular life. I grew up in a non-religious family in a big city (Moscow). The majority of families in Russia were and still are non-religious due to the fact that religion has been prohibited for a long time. It's not any more, but it was at the time I was growing up. So, there word "God" was not used in my family, aside from the idioms, like "thank God" that have become a part of the language and you don't even pay attention to the words in them. I came to know this word and the One whom it represents when I was already here, in my thirties. And knowing Him brought the happiness into my life. But then, I came to know myself and that on one hand brought the freedom and on the other hand confused the heck out of my mind. the confusion came because I came to know myself as the only living being that lives in everything, the beautiful and the ugly, the human and the squirrel, the leave and the stone, the wall of the house and the pavement, the animate and the inanimate. This knowledge was a result of an experience, not just something intellectually obtained and because of that it is beyond any doubt. So now I struggle between two worlds, the world where exist God and I and we love each other and the world where only I exist and I love myself. These two worlds represent the paradox that is expressed by Jesus in the bible, when he said "I and the Father are one" and yet, "My Father is bigger than I". It is quite a paradox for the mind to swallow and my mind still chokes on it. Oh yes, and the is the third world, the one where I exist along with the other creatures that are completely separate from me, with their own points of view and their own attention and opinions. It is not very easy to keep your sanity leaving in this triple paradox. sometimes, when i think too deep on these subjects, I begin to feel like I am loosing it. so I stop the thinking and just feel. when I feel, when i simply be, simply hang there, soar in the unknowing, there is no conflict. whether I feel God or feel myself it feels good and it makes me calm and serene. it only when I try to rationalize and understand and sort things out that the confusion comes. so, it seems that it is best to just stop thinking, but can we? this is where the meditation helps. meditation is simply feeling, at least it is to me.

Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

Jesus replies: "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner as the outer, and the upper as the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male shall not be male, and the female shall not be female: . . . then you will enter [the kingdom]."

I felt similar feelings to what you described below. I just lay here for a while and could not even get up to meditate. Being alone sometimes gives us depth. When i see your post... i see it there. I started thinking about all the different people that have blessed my life as I was laying here. Sometimes we need time to just reflect. It's O.K.

There are many opportunities in our life. We just have to recognize them when they come. For instance; Amma will be in Detroit in a month or so. Now there is a person who can change your life! All for now Irena and thank-you for sharing!

for some reason, I don't feel any attraction to Amma. not sure why.

The word of God is in my heart,It's flowing all the time.My soul and God are not apart,But one as clock and chime.

The voice of God speaks through my voice,His eyes see through my eyes.He is the one who makes the choiceOf virtue or the vice.

The life of God is so vast,It simply has no end.And I am His eternal quest,He's my eternal friend.

The word of God? I am His word,His sentence and His book.I am the story that He told,The road, that He took.

Welcome Irina, this is mccoy from Italy. Re: pessimism vs optimism: i find my mood and mental perspective may swing a little but since I hate moods I do whatever I can to kill them. I find a good strategy is to dissociate from them and take as much mental attention as possible onto the Christ center, that helps.Unfortunately, they tend to come, sometimes out of nowhere. It's a very good mental workout trying to overcome them.We're all slaves of the flesh until we are able to overcome the karma of rebirth. Also, we may see it as mantaining the flesh, like we would do for a vehicle. So we would be mechanics, not slaves. Steve's truck is well mantained, otherwise he could be left stuck on the road. My car as well, I work with it and getting stuck would be a huge bummer. We become slaves when we overindulge in the whims of the flesh. A little pampering usually does not imply being a slave, but may be a psychological necessity. Often it's hard to tell a necessity from a mere indulgence and the ego takes advantage of it. Life wasn't meant to be easy. Important is to do one's best, and offer it to God.

Thanks for your little talk about maintaining our 'vehicle' mccoy and the beautiful poem and thread you started irena. There was such a strong reaction to the religious and social injustices of the czar political system. I wonder if you miss your home country and what age you left irena. Do you see some advantages of Russia compared to the states?

You asked me about me and my life. I feel as though religion - specifically Christianity held me back spiritually and it is a debilitating element in our society. Why? Because most Christians can only except Jesus and they have no conception of meditation since it was either taken out of the Bible or was not taught by Jesus to the masses. In the name of Christianity so many people have been persecuted and tortured that there is really no believable legitimacy anymore. Like any view you may have someone somewhere will prove to you that there is an exception. I have had this happen also.

i believe you asked me why this forum was started on another forum. It was started for many reasons but in relation to the last paragraph- the main reason is to accept all paths leading to the infinite. Not just a fixation on one path to the exclusion of other people and rigid conceptions that narrow our views about our spiritual life. Most of us here are speaking about spirituality - not religion. It is not all SRF or all Catholic or all Yogananda or all any one narrow view that defines religion. We come together and share each others views.

To give you an example: you told me you do not feel an attraction towards Amma. That is fine. However if I were to say i do not feel an attraction towards Yogananda on another forum bearing his name i do not think i would get the same response. They might wonder why I was there and that would be O.K. i just would like to have a place to communicate where the influence of many spiritual views converge and everyone who is seeking spiritual awakening feels welcome to express their different views and a place where you can meet people and find friends.

Hi mccoy! Nice to meet you and thank you for the sermon I've enjoyed it.

I've been in Italy, actually even lived there for several month. I had a privilege to experience the beauty and the joy of Italy. We stayed in a small sea town not far from Rome, but I did take a trip to Florence, Venice and San Marino. It was like a dream. What surprised me a lot is that the view of the countryside (we were traveling by bus) actually looked like the old paintings of the Italian artists that I've known since childhood. I've always thought that the nature in those paintings is somewhat unreal, that is is stylized by the artists, but it turned out that Italian countryside looks exactly like those paintings. The three things I loved about Italy were: the roses everywhere, the wonderful milk products and ...the siesta. I think, that siesta is the greatest thing the humanity could think of. Too bad it is not a world-wide custom.

I agree with you about moods. they are always changing and it is wise to treat them like the weather and ignore and not try to explain or change them. Treating like the weather an understanding of what you are is a bit more tricky. In this area, it seems preferable to stay on one position. do you know what you are, mccoy? What do you think about your Self?

Hi Steve. i left Russia when i was 24 and i am 49 now. so, you see, i've been here over half of my life. no, i don't miss Russia any more. i did in the beginning for about ten years and then, one day the homesickness just vaporized and I stopped pining about my old home. the only advantage that i could think of is the taste of the deserts. i like Russian deserts more than the American ones. but it may actually be an advantage that i am so far removed from them.

I understand your feelings about religion and about this web site i also understand now. I've heard the same protest against religion from other people and I understand how it may come to happen. For me, it is a bit different. I freely chose religion and I did not immerse myself completely in the church, although i've spent considerable time with people of different churches and my friends and I at one point even had our own little church group. My religion does not belong to one particular church or a denomination. For me religion is my relationship with God. I do like the words of Sai Baba:

"There is only one religion; the religion of LoveThere is only one language; the language of the HeartThere is only caste; the caste of HumanityThere is only one God, He is Omnipresent."

"All religions teach one basic discipline - the removal of the blemish of egoism from the mind, and of running after trivial joys. Every religion teaches man to fill his being with the Glory of God, and evict the pettiness of conceit. It trains him in methods of detachment and discrimination, so that he may aim high and attain liberation. Believe that all hearts are motivated by the one God; that all faiths glorify Him alone; that all names in all languages and all forms man can conceive denote the one Supreme Being; His adoration is best done by means of love.Cultivate that Eka-bhava (attitude of Oneness), between men of all creeds, all countries and all continents. That is the message of love, I bring. That is the message I wish you to take to heart.""Let the different faiths exist, let them flourish; let the glory of God be sung in all languages in a variety of tunes. That should be the ideal. Respect the differences between the faiths and recognize them as valid so far as they do not extinguish the flame of unity"~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Welcome Irina, this is mccoy from Italy. Re: pessimism vs optimism: i find my mood and mental perspective may swing a little but since I hate moods I do whatever I can to kill them. I find a good strategy is to dissociate from them and take as much mental attention as possible onto the Christ center, that helps.Unfortunately, they tend to come, sometimes out of nowhere. It's a very good mental workout trying to overcome them.We're all slaves of the flesh until we are able to overcome the karma of rebirth. Also, we may see it as mantaining the flesh, like we would do for a vehicle. So we would be mechanics, not slaves. Steve's truck is well mantained, otherwise he could be left stuck on the road. My car as well, I work with it and getting stuck would be a huge bummer. We become slaves when we overindulge in the whims of the flesh. A little pampering usually does not imply being a slave, but may be a psychological necessity. Often it's hard to tell a necessity from a mere indulgence and the ego takes advantage of it. Life wasn't meant to be easy. Important is to do one's best, and offer it to God.

End of the sermon, lol.

Maybe it's hard to tell a psychological necessity from a mere indulgence because we have indulged and created certain habits from one life to the next.